President Barack Obama answers questions during an interview with Reuters in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, November 9, 2009.(Agencies) |
President Barack Obama may be in for a nasty surprise when he reaches the final pages of the best-selling book Life of Pi, which he said on Monday he was reading with his 11-year-old daughter Malia. Obama called it a "wonderful book" that was enthralling his daughter in an interview. "There are whole chapters that really have to do with Hinduism, Christianity. There is a lot of philosophical stuff in there, but for some reason she (Malia) is hanging in there," he said. The prize-winning book by Yann Martel centers on the journey of Pi Patel, who is cast adrift in a lifeboat with a tiger, a hyena, a zebra and an orangutan after a ship carrying him and his family from India to Canada sinks. There is a battle for survival and eventually it is just Pi and the tiger left in the small boat. But the fantasy adventure is revealed to possibly have been a fabrication by the narrator in the last pages of the book, with the real story emerging of a horrific tale of cannibalism and murder. (Read by Chantal Anderson. Chantal Anderson is a multimedia journalist at the China Daily Web site.)
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美國總統(tǒng)奧巴馬于本周一稱,目前他正在和他11歲的女兒瑪麗亞讀《少年Pi的奇幻漂流》這本暢銷書,不過他在讀到這本書的最后幾頁時可能會大驚失色。 奧巴馬在一次訪談中說,這本書“很精彩”,讓他的女兒很著迷。 他說:“有時候整個章節(jié)都和印度教和基督教有關。書中有很多哲學方面的東西,不過不知為什么,瑪麗亞還是堅持讀下去了?!?/font> 這一獲獎作品由揚?馬特爾所著,主要講述的是少年派?帕特爾的一次奇幻旅程。派和他的家人乘坐一艘船從印度駛往加拿大,船在海上沉沒后,他被扔進一只救生船,和一只老虎、一只土狼、一只斑馬和一頭猩猩一起在海上漂流。 故事講的是一場生存的戰(zhàn)斗,最后只有派和老虎留在了那只小船上。 但讀到書的最后幾頁,“真相”會大白,這一奇幻歷險的故事可能是敘述者虛構出來的。真實的故事源于一個有關同類相食和殘殺的可怕傳說。 相關閱讀 (英語點津陳丹妮 姍姍編輯) |
Vocabulary: enthrall: to hold spellbound; captivate 迷住;吸引住(The magic show enthralled the audience. 魔術表演把觀眾吸引住了。) hang in there: to persevere despite difficulties; persist 堅持下去(Hang in there, baby. You can pass the university entrance exam! 寶貝,不要泄氣,堅持下去。你一定能通過大學入學考試?。?/p> |